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BLINN PASSES BUDGET WHILE TAX RATE WAITS 

(AUGUST 20TH, 2008) 

          The Blinn College Board approved a $64.6 million budget at their meeting last night but the tax rate to pay for it will wait another month.

          Even though the rate is going down, it is still an effective raise in taxes.  If the Blinn board wanted the college take in the same revenue as they did last year they would have lowered the tax rate to 4.09 cents per one hundred dollar valuation.  The consensus of the Board was that with no new money coming in from the state, they needed more.  So they proposed lowering the tax rate from 5.04 cents to 5.032 cents.  That’s lowering the rate while actually raising taxes.

Staff and interested parties at the Blinn Board meeting.

          Because the taxes are going up, the Board will need to have two public hearings, on September second at seven pm, and on September 9^th, at noon.

          The Board is expected to adopt the tax rate during their regular September meeting on the 16^th.

          Blinn President Dr. Dan Holt called the budget balanced, taking in slightly more in revenues than making in expenditures.

          The College will take in $752,000 from tuitions from in-district students, or 1.2 percent of the budget.  Out of district students  contribute $19.4 million in tuitions, or 30.2 percent of the budget.  State appropriations contribute $20.9 million or 32.4 percent of the college’s funding. 

          Staff salaries account of the 22.6 percent of the budget expenditures, faculty salaries account for 22.3 percent of the budget expenditures.  

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BLINN EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION 

(AUGUST 20TH, 2008) 

          The Blinn College Board of Trustees has approved the installation of the same kind of emergency notification system that Virginia Tech employed after last year’s massacre.  

    After some detailed discussion the Board agreed to purchase of an emergency notification system to alert students, parents, faculty and staff using voice messaging, text messaging and email.  The system will be implemented during the fall semester.

          Blinn President Dr. Dan Holt says the emergency notification system will provide the assurance that the administration has the means to immediately notify students, parents and employees in case of a catastrophe event, security breach, physical threat or other crisis.

          The Board authorized a contract with 3N, the National Notification System, the same company that services Virginia Tech University where in April of 2007, a gun man massacred 32 people.

          The 3N Notification Network is presently being used in educational institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada.

          The initial proposal has Blinn paying $38,680 for implementing the system and that includes the training.  The first year cost is based on 15,200 subscribers.  The second year cost is estimated at $31,360.  Cost could vary depending on fluctuations in  Blinn enrollment and staffing numbers.

          Three N, is a Glendale, California  based global provider of mass notification solutions to corporations. 

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KOLKHORST AND MEDICAID CONCERNS 

(AUGUST 20TH, 2008) 

          Trying to increase the state’s Medicaid to per person  is a real balancing act with so many other important issues to deal with.  So says State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst who toured the Brenham Rest Home Tuesday.  The home is a skilled nursing facility where many patients depend heavily on the federal/state funding.  She met with the facilities leaders and front line caregivers to discuss why increased investment in the State’s Medicaid program is urgently needed to protect facility residents, strengthens staffing efforts and enhance ongoing quality improvement efforts.

          Kolkhorst recognizes this is one place where government funding is a necessity.

 

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst with a resident of the  Brenham Rest Home.

          Kolkhorst is concerned that the state’s low average Medicaid rate per person, $106.59 as compared to $153.83 nationally, negatively impact patients and caregivers.  Kolkhorst called the work of the front line care givers ‘almost like a ministry.’ 

 

 

 

 

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CONGRESSMAN MCCAUL ON IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT 

(AUGUST 20TH, 2008) 

          The Houston field office of I.C.E., the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, has fifty-two counties in its jurisdiction with only 35 agents to help area law enforcement officers to find illegal aliens, especially those who commit violent crimes.

          That was the concern the District Ten U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul addressed as he met with many of those officers Tuesday at the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

          He discussed with the county judges and sheriff’s of Austin, Burleson, Lee, Waller and Washington Counties, along with the mayors of Bellville, Brenham, Caldwell, Giddings, Hempstead, Sealy and Waller, the Secure Communities Plan that gets law enforcement agencies from the federal government to have greater communications with the locals.

 

Congressman Michael McCaul speaks with County Judge Dorothy Morgan about immigration concerns.

 

          McCaul says this a relatively new program and that there is much more work to do. 

          Washington County Sheriff J.W. Jankowski says he learned much from Tuesday's gathering, and had his own concerns.

 

          McCaul says that the Secure Communities plan must work with a hosts of other programs to curb illegal immigration and that more funding is needed.  

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BISD BOARD LOWERS TAXES 

(AUGUST 19TH, 2008) 

          The Brenham School Board actually lowered taxes at their meeting last night at the High School.

          The Board had published a tax rate of $1.11 per one hundred dollar valuation two weeks ago.  They could go lower but they couldn’t go higher.  At last night’s meeting they went lower.

          Board Member Richard O’Malley, said he had given a very close look at the proposed budget of $34.3 million and thought there was room for a two cent tax cut.  After some discussion, and concerns about costs going up, the board concurred and adopted a $1.09 rate.  O’Malley says there is a cushion in the reserve funds and it was time to give the taxpayers a break.

BISD Supt. David Yeager consults with Board  President Vance Hamilton before the meeting.

 

          Dr. Donald Draehn said he was certainly aware that they were dealing with a ‘very tight’ budget.  He said he was in favor in the cut but didn’t ‘want to be cut short.’

          The School board adopted the budget as well but with the tax rate, they will have $360,000 less revenues. 

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TAX RATE HEARING 

(AUGUST 19TH, 2008) 

          A public hearing on the proposed property tax rate heads up the Brenham City Council agenda this week.

          The Brenham City Council has published a tax rate of just over fifty cents per one hundred dollar valuation. Like so many taxing entities in our area, they aren’t raising the rate but with the higher property valuations, the tax bill is actually going up for the typical property tax payer.  That’s why the City Council, when they meet Thursday at city hall will hold a public hearing on the tax rate.

          The city council has some other matters to tend to when they meet Thursday.  They are prepared to approve a payment of $244,000 to Chase Equipment Leasing, Incorporated for the Sanitation Department.

          The council will be looking at no parking zones, as well.  Those zones would be on Main Street, Alamo and Douglas Streets.

          The council will hold a workshop before Thursday’s meeting.  They will hear a quarterly report from the Washington County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and get an update on handheld ticket writers.  The council is also expected to discuss the annexation plan.

          The city council is expected to act on a proposal from Brazos Technology Corporation for the electronic ticket writers during the formal session.

          The Brenham City Council meets at five-fifteen Thursday afternoon at  city hall. The workshop is at four-thirty. 

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AGGRAVATED ASSAULT INDICTMENTS 

(AUGUST 19TH, 2008) 

          A Brenham man’s angry reaction to a party disturbance has left him indicted on several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

          Twenty-eight year old Justin Ray Cienega was reportedly so enraged during a gathering on June 14^th  that he got into a car and allegedly tried to run over seven people in the Bluebonnet Hills subdivision.  Later on, Washington County Sheriff’s found him at his former wife’s house.  He got in his car and evaded the officers.  He was eventually arrested and charged with an additional felony of evading arrest in a motor vehicle.  Those were the counts that the 21^st district court grand jury indicted him on during this week’s session.

          Also indicted for using a motor vehicle to evade arrest was 39-year old Calvin Maurice Bradley of Burton.  Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested Bradley on June tenth of this year.

          Thirty-one year old Willis Calvin Jones was indicted for an aggravated assault incident after an incident on December 27^th last year.

          Forty-four year old Bruce Bennett Ray was arrested last December for assaulting a public servant with a deadly weapon.  The grand jury has indicted him on this charge. 

Thirty-five year old John Glen Means was indicted on indecency with a child charges stemming from an incident on January 31^st.  He was arrested recently.

          Thirty-two year old Isidro Alonso Rivera of Somerville was indicted on two counts of sexual assault and three counts of indecency with a child.

          Twenty-six year old Patrick Dion Hurd of Brenham was indicted for the unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon after his May 26^th arrest.

          Forty-seven year old Nathaniel Joseph Dalcour was arrested during a traffic stop on June first.  Brenham police stopped Dalcour on Blue Bell Road for speeding but he appeared nervous.  That brought on a search that found items that field tested positive for cocaine and items that are normally used to turn cocaine into crack.  That’s the first degree felony charge that the grand jury indicted Dalcour on.

           Brenham police made several arrest during a raid on a hotel room on May 26^th.  The manager of the Econo-Lodge in the 2200 block of South Market detected the odor of marijuana coming from a room he knew he had not rented out for the night and called police.

During the raid 26-year old James Edward Pennygraph was arrested  for criminal trespass and was caught allegedly flushing marijuana and other pills down a toilet.  He also allegedly had a small amount of cocaine in his possession.  Pennygraph was  indicted for the possession of cocaine and tampering with physical evidence after his arrest.   

Twenty-five year old Patrick Hurd was arrested in the same raid.  He was indicted for the possession of a firearm by a felon.

Arrested and now indicted for the same incident was 21-year old Taderis OBrian Lockett for the possession of cocaine. 

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MANSON'S JUMP FALLS SHORT

(AUGUST 17TH, 2008) 

          Sometimes a high hope leads to a fallen dream.  Brenham’s Andra Manson had hoped to become the first man from this town to win an Olympic Gold medal.  We all had this hope but in the qualifying rounds in the men’s high jump, Manson finished seventh in group A, and failed to qualify for the finals.  Manson had an impressive jump, two meters, and twenty five centimeters,(about seven feet, two inches,) but on Sunday in Beijing, others could jump higher, up to two meters and twenty-nine centimeters.   Manson had jumped higher earlier. Six years ago he jumped seven foot seven in the world junior championship.  Earlier this year he jumped seven foot six inches in the U.S. Indoor Championship.  Had he made such jumps in Beijing he would have qualified as the top jumper.

Andra Manson and some youthful well-wishers  before his Olympic journey to Beijing.

          Two jumpers from the Czech Republic, three from Great Britain, Germany, Sweden Slovenia, Brazil, Italy, and Russia were able to jump higher than Manson Sunday. 

          Brenham has produced so many great athletes, all star baseball players and managers, great golfers, and Hall of Fame College football players, but as far as anyone knows, no Olympic Gold Medal winners.  That hope will have to wait another day, another year, another Olympiad. 

          Andra Manson, is known as the young man who can leap over basketball stars, and was ranked the third best high jumper in the world.  When he went to Brenham High School he won two state championships in the high jump.

         

          Manson qualified for the U.S. Olympic team on July fifth in Eugene. 

          Manson won the NCAA high jump competition twice, once indoors and once outdoors.  He also won the Big 12 high jump six times, (four indoor and two outdoor.

          Manson claimed the U.S. Indoor Championship with a leap of 7’ 6” earlier this year.  He then went on to finish third at the World Indoor Championship.  He was the World Junior Champion with an Amercian Junior leap of 7’7” in 2002. 

 

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FAMILY HEADED FOR BRENHAM KILLED IN PLANE CRASH 

(August 18th, 2008) 

          The wreckage of a Piper Cub airplane, carrying a Houston family headed for Brenham, was discovered late Sunday afternoon in northern Colorado.  There were no survivors.

          Tommy Jacomini, wife Susie and their young children, Tommy and Vivi were onboard the Cessna 182t, airplane.  Authorities confirmed their identities after rescue crews from the Summit County, Colorado Rescue Group discovered the airplane wreckage.

          The family had taken off Friday morning from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, bound for the Brenham Airport, where they have a ranch.  About fifteen minutes after taking off, the plane disappeared from radar.  While officials says it is not unusual for planes to disappear in that area due to the mountains, the Jacomini’s plane never appeared again.

          A hiker came across the wreckage near Georgia Pass, some sixty-five miles west of Denver.

          The  elder Tommy’s father, also named Tommy, was about to board a plane and fly to Colorado when the word came of the discovery.  He is still making the trip while the rest of the family continues to gather at the family’s ranch here in Washington County

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WOMAN KILLED IN AUTO PED ACCIDENT 

(AUGUST 18TH, 2008) 

          A 32-year old woman, believed to be living in a hotel in the 200 block of Highway 290 East, was killed when a vehicle struck her Saturday night while she was crossing the highway.

          Reports from the Brenham Police Department say that Griselda Don-Juan-Perez was struck by a late model SUV at about 9:27 Saturday night.  The driver of the vehicle said he did not see the woman while she was crossing.  She was struck by the front right portion of the vehicle and was declared dead at the scene.

          The eastbound lane was closed during the accident investigation.  That investigation continues. 

         

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INTOXICATION MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE 

(AUGUST 17TH, 2008) 

          A 44-year old Leander woman is facing intoxication manslaughter charges after a fatal traffic incident in Washington County last Sunday.

          Freddie Tucker was driving a late model Ford Expedition on 200 block of U.S. 290 east just past midnight last Sunday with an adult and two children.  One of the children distracted her and she rolled over.  The child riding in the front seat initially survived the rollover but later had to be taken to the Trinity Medical Center.  He was then transferred to Houston’s Hermann Hospital where he died.  He was reportedly about a year old.

          Reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety says that the Expedition went off the road at about 12:30am Sunday, and rolled over several times.  The DPS further reports that Tucker was initially charged with intoxication assault but when the child died the charged was upgraded to manslaughter.  Tucker has been released under a $10,000. 

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WASTE COLLECTION EVENT 

(AUGUST 17TH, 2008) 

          Brenham Recycling Center director Dane Rau says Saturday’s turnout for the household hazardous waste and computers at the Fireman’s Training Center was so good they may have another.

Just one of the many people disposing on  hazardous waste on Saturday.

 

 

          Rau said there was line of cars filled with all kinds of waste, but mostly paint, from the beginning.

          This is for the residents of the city only and proof of residency is required.

          Brenham residents brought old paint, antifreeze, propane bottles, pesticides, cleaning solvents, computers and many other items.

          Waste oil, oil filters, and batteries were only accepted at the recycling center.

          The collection did not accept household garbage, ammunition, explosives, tires, medical waste, radioactive waste or bio-hazardous waste. 

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SALES TAX WEEKEND UNDERWAY

(AUGUST 15TH, 2008) 

 

          Clothing and other retail stores in Brenham, Washington County and most of the state of Texas are once again getting ready for what has become a rite of summer: the 10^th annual Sales Tax free weekend.

          Evelyn Smith of the Palais Royal Store in Brenham says they are predicting a good, steady stream of shoppers throughout the sales tax free days that just began and continue through Sunday.  She says they have set up the cash registers so the sales taxes are not counted on the sales receipts.

          Texas Comptroller Susan Combs says that the tax holiday brings savings on clothing and shoes and that Texas shoppers could save $54 millions of dollars statewide. This includes $42.1 million in state sales taxes and $11.9 million in local sales taxes. Local communities have the option of opting out of the  holiday but few do so.  The tax free items are priced less than a hundred dollars.

          For a list of items that are exempt from the sales tax holiday log on to the state comptroller’s web site at www.window.state.tx.us.taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98

         

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FOUR H FAMILY NIGHT 

(AUGUST 15TH, 2008) 

          There was a good reason that the Washington County Four-H Clubs selected Bluebell Creameries as the Friend of Four H, for this year.  Courtney Lawrence of the Four H made the announce at last night’s Family Night Awards Dinner at the Washington County Events Center and noted that Bluebell and Four H had their origins at about the same time.

 

          The Special County awards also went to Daniel Engeling who was the Four-H Alumni.  The Four H Family of the Year went to the Scott Luetge Family, Scott, Tammy, Chasidy and Colton.

          The outstanding juniors were Shane Bentke, Hanna Schwartz, and Kasey Pect.

          The outstanding intermediate members were Jon Wellman, Brent Batts, and Kyle Bentke.

          The Workhorse Awards went to Kristen Klausmeyer and Ellen Eberhardt.

          The Silver Star Awards went to Deanna Bosse and Chandler Wagner.

          The I Dare You Award went to Chasidy Luetge and Colton Luetgke.

          The Gold Star Awards went to Kourtney Lorene, Heather Watson and Leanna Batts.

          Joshua Reumke received the Rookie of the Year Award. 

 

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HASSKARL REMEMBERED    

(AUGUST 13TH, 2008) 

       One mourner for Dr. W.F.  “Boy” Hasskarl, Jr., observed that he lived ‘nine full decades, possessed the art of healing the ill and infirmed and the love of his community.”  Dr. Allan Commander, one of the hundreds who came out to the Dr. Hasskarl’s funeral today (Wednesday) at the Brenham Country Club, said further that there was not much more that one could ask of life.  He noted however, that a community could not ask more from any one man.

 

Hundreds came to mourn Dr. W.F. Hasskarl Jr.

 

          Andy Anderson, of Brenham Memorial Chapel noted that his mother, Andi Anderson, was the first nurse at the Brenham Clinic, the Clinic that Dr. Hasskarl help found fifty-one years ago.  Anderson said that Hasskarl was so dedicated to his profession, that he kept the Clinic open until seven pm on Saturdays.

          Dr. W.F. ‘Boy’ Hasskarl was laid to rest today after funeral services at the Brenham Country Club. 

          Since his death Saturday morning, the former Brenham mayor, long-time physician and avid local historian has been remembered for his love for Brenham. 

          The current Mayor Milton Tate released a statement saying that Dr. Hasskarl was ‘one of a kind, a true community treasure. He loved Brenham with all his heart and he was dedicated to serving our community both through his medical practice and as a historian.  He has preserved so much of our past and reminded us of who we are, where we come from and why our traditions and values are so important.  He bridged a gap from one generation to the next.’ The Mayor went on to say that Dr. Hasskarl was a remarkable man who will be missed greatly.

          Dr. Hasskarl was Mayor of Brenham from 1968 to 1972..

 

 

 

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